MSN Messenger

Discussion in 'other security issues & news' started by zarzenz, Dec 26, 2002.

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  1. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    I just installed the latest version 5 of Messenger.

    I have two questions about it that I am concerned about.

    1) In my startup programs, it has installed LOADQM. Should I leave this run, as I believe it connects to MS for some sort of update check... my firewall keeps asking me if I want to allow MS QMGR through... and I'm not sure if I should let it.

    2) As regards the QMGR files... there is something very strange with the location 2 of them. I see that Messenger now locates a QMGR CAB file and a QMGR SETUP file in the Temp folder. If I then clean out the Temp folder... and then try to start Messenger... the program has to reinstall itself... and the two files are then put back in the Temp folder... so it seems that they are needed to run Messenger but if so why are they located in a Temp location.

    Has anyone else had similar problems or knows what I should do in this situation.
     
  2. TonyKlein

    TonyKlein Security Expert

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    Hi,

    LoadQM is the first thing I uncheck or manually remove from the Registry Run key after upgrading MSN Messenger.

    The latest versions will not allow you to delete or rename LoadQM.exe, but if you disable its startup it won't bother you any longer.

    MSN works fine without it.

    About the QMGR files in the Temp folder, I've heard that once or twice before, but I don't have that experience myself.

    Don't know what could cause that on some systems.

    I'll do some investigating, and will report back whenever I find out smthng.

    Cheers,
     
  3. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    Thank you,

    That's great... I will now go and disable the LoadQM startup entry... and as regards the temp location items... yep... if you find something... that would be great also... cheers.
     
  4. *Ari*

    *Ari* Registered Member

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    Hi Zarzenz and Tony

    That is exactly I tried to explain to Tony earlier. And it won´t do any good if I disabled loadqm from start up; it just double itself. That is " another jewel from microsoft" :D be happy.

    and welcome aboard Zarzenz

    -Ari
     
  5. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    Well... I've removed the LoadQM from the startup and that seems to have gone ok and I'm not being asked by the firewall about it now... so that seems to have worked. But... when I did some tests yesterday... I think what happens is... if you clear the temp folder... this then makes the program reinstall itself next time it is run... and then you go through the whole cycle again with the LoadQM being put back in the startups etc. So the trick that I want to know now is... how do I get the setup file that Messenger insists on putting in the temp folder (what a stupid location to put a required file) and so enable me to keep my current startup as it is, and yet still be able to clear my temp files which I like to do often, and not have to keep reinstalling the program.

    Cheers
     
  6. TonyKlein

    TonyKlein Security Expert

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    That's a good question, and I have no truly satisfying answer for you.

    I'd uninstall Messenger completely, reboot, clear your Windows\Temp directory, and do a fresh install, making sure the program installs to the Program Files directory.

    Other than that, I don't know what else to suggest
     
  7. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    Hi Tony,

    I did a little search and came up with this.

    http://miataru.computing.net/windows2000/wwwboard/forum/40428.html

    So it looks like this is a known problem.

    The last post on there gives a registry tweak to point to a new location... so I may give this a try later.

    Thanks for all your help.
     
  8. TonyKlein

    TonyKlein Security Expert

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    You're welcome.

    However, Messenger actually creates its subkeys during install, so pointing the existing one elsewhere isn't sure to fix the problem.

    However, I checked, and, as I suspected, I don't even have a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Components subkey, so I'm not sure what this guy is talking about

    This is on Win XP by the way, and doublechecking on your system certainly can't hurt.
     
  9. Mike_Healan

    Mike_Healan Registered Member

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    I've heard of this same problem before. There is some file in the temp folder that if it is removed will cause messenger to put itself back in startup.

    Nope, smart from their standpoint. People do tend to clear their temp files regularly, so what better way to make messenger reinstall something than by doing it when a certain temp file goes missing?

    FYI, you could just use xp-antispy if you are on xp to completely remove messenger, then replace it with Trillian.

    http://www.xp-antispy.org/
    http://www.trillian.cc/
     
  10. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    Mike,
    Wow... that Trillian looks quite good... I may give it a try later. I'm running WinME so it would be easy for me to uninstall Messenger 5, and start again.

    I see what you mean about the temp file... hmmm... ok.

    Many thanks.
     
  11. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    I've sorted the temp location issue.

    I did have the location in my registry as the other guy had indicated... and all I had to do was copy the complete qmgr.inf file over to the Messenger folder and then repoint the value at the location he suggested... only one small point... he had double backslashes shown between the locations... I had to use single ones... then I completely wiped my temp folder clean (I love doing that)... and then restarted Messenger... and yes :D it worked.

    So thanks are due to the poster in the other forum...

    it's all working as I want it to now.
     
  12. TonyKlein

    TonyKlein Security Expert

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    Great news!

    Good to hear you got it fixed.

    The double backslashes happen when exporting a regfile.
    When typing the values manually, you just need one slash.
     
  13. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

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    Yeah,

    Thanks Tony... and with your original suggestion to remove the Loadqm from startups, I've not had any problems.

    It's nice when these little problems can be sorted like this.
     
  14. *Ari*

    *Ari* Registered Member

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